History YMMV / CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight

** While everyone agrees that the SegaSaturn port [[PortingDisaster is technically inferior to the Playstation original despite the Saturn being a more powerful 2D system]], there's debate among the fanbase as to if the technical issues aren't that bad and if the extra content still make it a respectable version worth your time. Others will say that the extra content isn't up to the high quality of the rest of the game and that you shouldn't even bother. There's also the third group of people who will say that it's and inferior version and the extra content isn't worth it, but don't consider them deal breakers when the core game is still fantastic.

* FridgeBrilliance: Alucard's first appearance in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse'' and later canon appearances give him dark hair, but in this game it's white. Of course he'd look extremely pale for his appearance here; the opening crawl explains that he just woke up from a 400-year nap in a sealed crypt. Of course, it's also possible, judging by his disguise as Genya Arikado in the ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Sorrow]]'' games, that Alucard simply [[{{Glamour}} uses magic to change certain aspects of his appearance]].* FridgeLogic: How well Richter does in his battle against Dracula in the prologue determines Alucard's starting stats. But how does this even make sense? Having a hard time means either Richter is weaker or Dracula is stronger; the former shouldn't have any effect, and a stronger Dracula would mean a stronger Alucard since they're of the same bloodline. This doesn't even make sense from a gameplay perspective since doing well against Dracula means an advanced player, in which case the game should give Alucard worse states to maintain the level of challenge in the game. (This is how ''Dragon Spirit: The New Legend'' handles the same issue: if you lose the prologue battle you play an easier version of the game)

Reason: Given there's already a page for Fridge, I'm moving them there.

*** The PSP English voice work has this in spades as well... Is the PSP version's voice acting genuinely good and an unfortunate victim of the NostalgiaFilter from fans of the [=PS1=] version? Or did the PSP version try to take the game far too seriously? Or is it really not any better than the [=PS1=] version as they sound too generic? (At least the [=PS1=] version tried to sound a bit more European as just about everyone in the PSP version sounded too American.) It depends on what you felt about the voice work in the [=PS1=] version or if you are a fan of Californian Anime English Dub [=VAs=] such as YuriLowenthal, WendeeLee and MichelleRuff.** Voice acting aside, the game itself has this as well; fans argue over things such as whether it should be praised or hated for being known as the cause of {{Metroidvania}}, as a lot of other Castlevania games [[FollowTheLeader tried to be like Symphony of the Night]], at the expense of the [[PlatformHell former deliberate action platformer style]] the series used to be known for. Egoraptor discussed the latter in his first Sequelitis video.

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*** The PSP English voice work has this in spades as well... Is the PSP version's voice acting genuinely good and an unfortunate victim of the NostalgiaFilter from fans of the [=PS1=] version? Or did the PSP version try to take the game far too seriously? Or is it really not any better than the [=PS1=] version as they sound too generic? (At least the [=PS1=] version tried to sound a bit more European as just about everyone in the PSP version sounded too American.) It depends on what you felt about the voice work in the [=PS1=] version or if you are a fan of Californian Anime anime English Dub dub [=VAs=] such as YuriLowenthal, WendeeLee Creator/YuriLowenthal, Creator/WendeeLee and MichelleRuff.Creator/MichelleRuff.** Voice acting aside, the game itself has this as well; fans argue over things such as whether it should be praised or hated for being known as the cause of {{Metroidvania}}, as a lot of other Castlevania ''Castlevania'' games [[FollowTheLeader tried to be like Symphony of the Night]], at the expense of the [[PlatformHell former deliberate action platformer style]] the series used to be known for. Egoraptor Creator/{{Egoraptor}} discussed the latter in his first Sequelitis ''WebVideo/{{Sequelitis}}'' video.

** Bone Muskets AKA Skeleton Gunmen. Those little bastards are able to take off around 30 HP a shot, require you to duck and wait, as well as possibly being in a room full of other enemies to hinder you. It doesn't help in that some of them are encountered early-to-mid game and while trying to input spells to deal with them, they can just snipe your ass (despite them having very low HP).

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** Bone Muskets AKA aka Skeleton Gunmen. Those little bastards are able to take off around 30 HP a shot, require you to duck and wait, as well as possibly being in a room full of other enemies to hinder you. It doesn't help in that some of them are encountered early-to-mid game and while trying to input spells to deal with them, they can just snipe your ass (despite them having very low HP).

* DifficultyLevels: Sort of. Luck mode offers huge bonuses to luck at the cost of all of your other stats. It cannot be accessed unless you have a clear game file saved on your card, and it's unlocked by entering a cryptic series of characters for your name.

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* DifficultyLevels: Sort of. Luck mode Mode offers huge bonuses to luck at the cost of all of your other stats. It cannot be accessed unless you have a clear game file saved on your card, and it's unlocked by entering a cryptic series of characters for your name.

* EarWorm: "The Final Toccata", the music for no less than ''six'' areas in the Reverse Castle.* FridgeBrilliance: Alucard's first appearance in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse'' and later canon appearances give him dark hair, but in this game it's white. Of course he'd look extremely pale for his appearance here; the opening crawl explains that he just woke up from a 400-year nap in a sealed crypt.* FridgeLogic: How well Richter does in his battle against Dracula in the prologue determines Alucard's starting stats. But how does this even make sense? Having a hard time means either Richter is weaker or Dracula is stronger; the former shouldn't have any effect, and a stronger Dracula would mean a stronger Alucard since they're of the same bloodline. This doesn't even make sense from a gameplay perspective since doing well against Dracula means an advanced player, in which case the game should give Alucard worse states to maintain the level of challenge in the game. (This is how Dragon Spirit: The New Legend handles the same issue: if you lose the prologue battle you play an easier version of the game)

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* EarWorm: "The Final Toccata", Toccata," the music for no less than ''six'' areas in the Reverse Castle.* FridgeBrilliance: Alucard's first appearance in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse'' and later canon appearances give him dark hair, but in this game it's white. Of course he'd look extremely pale for his appearance here; the opening crawl explains that he just woke up from a 400-year nap in a sealed crypt.crypt. Of course, it's also possible, judging by his disguise as Genya Arikado in the ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Sorrow]]'' games, that Alucard simply [[{{Glamour}} uses magic to change certain aspects of his appearance]].* FridgeLogic: How well Richter does in his battle against Dracula in the prologue determines Alucard's starting stats. But how does this even make sense? Having a hard time means either Richter is weaker or Dracula is stronger; the former shouldn't have any effect, and a stronger Dracula would mean a stronger Alucard since they're of the same bloodline. This doesn't even make sense from a gameplay perspective since doing well against Dracula means an advanced player, in which case the game should give Alucard worse states to maintain the level of challenge in the game. (This is how Dragon ''Dragon Spirit: The New Legend Legend'' handles the same issue: if you lose the prologue battle you play an easier version of the game)

** When playing in 99 Luck mode, Alucard can skip the conversation with Death and keep his equipment: this is thanks to the greatly lowered defense from the Luck Mode combined with the special knockback animation you get if you take half or more of your max HP in damage from a single hit, allowing you to take a hit from one of the Wargs' charge attacks and be sent flying through the room where you encounter Death. It seems that in the PSP version, you can do this simply by leaving the screen before the cutscene starts. You get the Shield Rod reasonably early in the first castle. This means you get to start owning bosses with the Alucard Shield combo early.

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** When playing in 99 Luck mode, Mode, Alucard can skip the conversation with Death and keep his equipment: this is thanks to the greatly lowered defense from the Luck Mode combined with the special knockback animation you get if you take half or more of your max HP in damage from a single hit, allowing you to take a hit from one of the Wargs' charge attacks and be sent flying through the room where you encounter Death. It seems that in the PSP version, you can do this simply by leaving the screen before the cutscene starts. You get the Shield Rod reasonably early in the first castle. This means you get to start owning bosses with the Alucard Shield combo early.

** The original [=PS1=] version of the game has a weird glitch involving a room with Frozen Shades: if you use the wolf form to quickly dash through the room until you hit an underwater wall, avoid killing the first and last Frozen Shade, attack right when you hit the wall and when jump out of the water onto the Ferryman's boat while backdashing back to the Frozen Shade with your shield out, turn into a wolf in mid-air over it and fall on it, the game goes into slow motion until you change screens and all items in the area will respawn infinitely, allowing you to max out your HP and hearts by collecting the respective Max Ups positioned next to each other in another part of the area, along with being able to get additional copies of any other items found in the area. If it sounds too obscure and random to believe, see [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dmxreEueX0 this.]]

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** The original [=PS1=] version of the game has a weird glitch involving a room with Frozen Shades: if you use the wolf form to quickly dash through the room until you hit an underwater wall, avoid killing the first and last Frozen Shade, attack right when you hit the wall and when jump out of the water onto the Ferryman's boat while backdashing back to the Frozen Shade with your shield out, turn into a wolf in mid-air over it and fall on it, the game goes into slow motion until you change screens and all items in the area will respawn infinitely, allowing you to max out your HP and hearts by collecting the respective Max Ups positioned next to each other in another part of the area, along with being able to get additional copies of any other items found in the area. If it sounds too obscure and random to believe, see [[http://www.[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dmxreEueX0 this.]]

* GuideDangIt: Finding the items to get into the mirror castle without a guide is easier said than done.* ILikedItBetterWhenItSucked: The [=PSP=]'s redubbing changed the NarmCharm to SoOkayItsAverage. Not everyone was pleased.

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* GuideDangIt: Finding the items to get into the mirror castle Inverted Castle without a guide is easier said than done.* ILikedItBetterWhenItSucked: The [=PSP=]'s redubbing changed the NarmCharm to SoOkayItsAverage. [[BrokenBase Not everyone was pleased.]]

--> [[WebVideo/{{Retsupurae}} This game was disappointingly enjoyable]].** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrze-nKw9zQ "What is a man!? A miserable pile of BUUUUUULLSHIT!"]]* MostAnnoyingSound: ''PSHWPSHWPSHWPSHWPSHWPSHW!'' Boy, that Tin Man's annoying, huh? Plus, its high defense, ability to match your speed, and the fact that it's pretty much always attacking make it a [[MixedMetaphor tough cookie to silence]]. But you fought hard, and you ''finally'' shut the thing up! ...And then you enter the massive room filled with them.

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--> [[WebVideo/{{Retsupurae}} This game was disappointingly enjoyable]].enjoyable.]]** [[http://www.[[WebAnimation/ADayInDraculasLife Courtesy of Kajetokun]]: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrze-nKw9zQ "What is a man!? A miserable pile of BUUUUUULLSHIT!"]]* MostAnnoyingSound: ''PSHWPSHWPSHWPSHWPSHWPSHW!'' Boy, that Tin Man's annoying, huh? Plus, its high defense, ability to match your speed, and the fact that it's pretty much always attacking make it a [[MixedMetaphor tough cookie to silence]]. But you fought hard, and you ''finally'' shut the thing up! ...And then you enter the massive room filled with them.

* OlderThanTheyThink: [[PopCulturalOsmosis Contrary to what the internet may believe]] Dracula's "What is man? A miserable little pile of secrets" line is actually a André Malraux quote. This is also NewerThanTheyThink as the quote doesn't appear in the original Japanese dialog.

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* OlderThanTheyThink: [[PopCulturalOsmosis Contrary to what the internet may believe]] believe]], Dracula's "What is man? A miserable little pile of secrets" secrets!" line is actually a André Malraux quote. This is also NewerThanTheyThink as the quote doesn't appear in the original Japanese dialog.

* PortingDisaster: The Japan-only Saturn port attempted to add some extras to the game by making Maria playable and adding two new areas. Unfortunately the novelty of the new features are quickly canceled out by the actual quality of the port itself: the game suffers from constant slowdown when the screen is filled with enemies, most of the graphical transparency effects are lost, and the game loads before and after entering the transition rooms between areas (you know, those rooms that were there to ''lessen'' the loading times in the first place). This is because the game was a direct port. The game is built on a 3D engine (only noticeable in a few places like the FinalBoss), and the Saturn had trouble handling 3D games. * ScrappyMechanic: Alucard's absolutely ridiculous {{Knockback}} if he so much as brushes against an enemy, along with his overly long hurt animation (At least compared to [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance later]] [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow games]]). Coupled with hard-to-hit enemies and tight corridors and later stages can have you pinball between foes until you die, or get stun locked by a perpetual onslaught of weak attacks, or even [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking get knocked back into another room]]. The knockback is so ridiculous, that it actually is part of retaining your starting gear on a luck run, among other exploits (see main page).** The way the music stops and restarts when you enter a save room, transition room or boss room can be irritating depending on how quickly you go through the maps (Or how often you get the stuffing kicked out of you), considering most of the music takes a while to get good. Consider [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f66hvqFhPLU Finale Toccata]], which is plays in most of the areas in the Inverted Castle, starts with a long violin sting, then takes two whole minutes to get going, meaning if you know your way around, you'll never hear the whole thing.

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* PortingDisaster: The Japan-only Saturn port port, ''Nocturne in the Moonlight'', attempted to add some extras to the game by making Maria playable and adding two new areas. Unfortunately the novelty of the new features are quickly canceled out by the actual quality of the port itself: the game suffers from constant slowdown when the screen is filled with enemies, most of the graphical transparency effects are lost, and the game loads before and after entering the transition rooms between areas (you know, those rooms that were there to ''lessen'' the loading times in the first place). This is because the game was a direct port. The game is built on a 3D engine (only noticeable in a few places like the FinalBoss), and the Saturn had trouble handling 3D games. * ScrappyMechanic: Alucard's absolutely ridiculous {{Knockback}} if he so much as brushes against an enemy, along with his overly long hurt animation (At (at least compared to [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance later]] [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow games]]). Coupled with hard-to-hit enemies and tight corridors and later stages can have you pinball between foes until you die, or get stun locked by a perpetual onslaught of weak attacks, or even [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking get knocked back into another room]]. The knockback is so ridiculous, that it actually is part of retaining your starting gear on a luck run, among other exploits (see main page).** The way the music stops and restarts when you enter a save room, transition room or boss room can be irritating depending on how quickly you go through the maps (Or how often you get the stuffing kicked out of you), considering most of the music takes a while to get good. Consider [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f66hvqFhPLU Finale Toccata]], "Finale Toccata,"]] which is plays in most of the areas in the Inverted Castle, starts with a long violin sting, then takes two whole minutes to get going, meaning if you know your way around, you'll never hear the whole thing.

* VindicatedByHistory: The game is even more popular now than it was in the Playstation's heyday, and it became a Greatest Hits title even then. It certainly helps that the game eschewed the 3D of most games in its era, meaning it's aged extremely well compared to its peers.* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Alucard's sprites are some of the most iconic in the series, with a whopping thirty frames of running animation. His cape is beautifully animated, and a late-game cape item lets you change its color, too.* {{Woolseyism}}: Out of many of the changed enemy names from Japanese-to-English, the skeleton enemy chasing its head was unimaginatively named "Soccer Boy" in the original translation. The localization changed its name to "[[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} Yorick]]", going from a bland joke to a rather clever Shakespeare reference.

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* VindicatedByHistory: The game is even more popular now than it was in the Playstation's UsefulNotes/PlayStation's heyday, and it became a Greatest Hits title even then. It certainly helps that the game eschewed the 3D of most games in its era, meaning it's aged extremely well compared to its peers.* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Alucard's sprites are some of the most iconic in the series, with a whopping thirty frames of running animation. His cape is beautifully animated, and a late-game cape item lets you change its color, too.* {{Woolseyism}}: Out of many of the changed enemy names from Japanese-to-English, the skeleton enemy chasing its head was unimaginatively named "Soccer Boy" in the original translation. The localization changed its name to "[[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} Yorick]]", Yorick]]," going from a bland joke to a rather clever Shakespeare [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]] reference.

* ScrappyMechanic: Alucard's absolutely ridiculous {{Knockback}} if he so much as brushes against an enemy, along with his overly long hurt animation (At least compared to [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance later]] [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow games]]). Coupled with hard-to-hit enemies and tight corridors and later stages can have you pinball between foes until you die, or get stun locked by a perpetual onslaught of weak attacks, or even [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking get knocked back into another room]]. The knockback is so ridiculous, that it actually is part of retaining your starting gear on a luck run, among other exploits (see main page).** The way the music stops and restarts when you enter a save room, transition room or boss room can be irritating depending on how quickly you go through the maps (Or how often you get the stuffing kicked out of you), considering most of the music takes a while to get good. Consider [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f66hvqFhPLU Finale Toccata]], which is plays in most of the areas in the Inverted Castle, starts with a long violin sting, then takes two whole minutes to get going, meaning if you know your way around, you'll never hear the whole thing.

* DifficultyLevels: Sort of. Luck (thief) mode and magician mode offer huge bonuses to luck or intelligence (respectively) at the cost of all of your other stats. Magician mode cannot be accessed unless you have a clear game file saved on your card, and both are unlocked by entering a cryptic series of characters for your name.

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* DifficultyLevels: Sort of. Luck (thief) mode and magician mode offer offers huge bonuses to luck or intelligence (respectively) at the cost of all of your other stats. Magician mode It cannot be accessed unless you have a clear game file saved on your card, and both are it's unlocked by entering a cryptic series of characters for your name.

Reason: Only Circle has Magician mode and this isn't that game. If it exists, and I've never heard of it personally and haven't seen any mention of it in any version of the game, please provide some proof.

* FridgeBrilliance: Alucard's first appearance in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse'' and later canon appearances give him dark hair, but in this game it's white. He had just reawakened after sealing himself in a crypt for 400 years, so it makes a lot of sense that he'd look extremely pale for his assault on Dracula's castle.

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* FridgeBrilliance: Alucard's first appearance in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse'' and later canon appearances give him dark hair, but in this game it's white. He had just reawakened after sealing himself in a crypt for 400 years, so it makes a lot of sense that Of course he'd look extremely pale for his assault on Dracula's castle.appearance here; the opening crawl explains that he just woke up from a 400-year nap in a sealed crypt.

*** The PS1 English voice work was initially flat out reviled but over the course of the 2000s became a popular case of SoBadItsGood. (While fans frequently compare the english voice work in the PS1 and PSP versions over which version is better.) But during the late 2000s/early 2010s there are a small but increasing amount of fans who think the English voice work in the PS1 version is genuinely good and underrated.*** The PSP English voice work has this in spades as well... Is the PSP version's voice acting genuinely good and an unfortunate victim of the NostalgiaFilter from fans of the PS1 version? Or did the PSP version try to take the game far too seriously? Or is it really not any better than the PS1 version as they sound too generic? (At least the PS1 version tried to sound a bit more European as just about everyone in the PSP version sounded too American.) It depends on what you felt about the voice work in the PS1 version or if you are a fan of Californian Anime English Dub [=VAs=] such as YuriLowenthal, WendeeLee and MichelleRuff.

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*** The PS1 [=PS1=] English voice work was initially flat out reviled but over the course of the 2000s became a popular case of SoBadItsGood. (While fans frequently compare the english English voice work in the PS1 [=PS1=] and PSP versions over which version is better.) But during the late 2000s/early 2010s there are a small but increasing amount of fans who think the English voice work in the PS1 [=PS1=] version is genuinely good and underrated.*** The PSP English voice work has this in spades as well... Is the PSP version's voice acting genuinely good and an unfortunate victim of the NostalgiaFilter from fans of the PS1 [=PS1=] version? Or did the PSP version try to take the game far too seriously? Or is it really not any better than the PS1 [=PS1=] version as they sound too generic? (At least the PS1 [=PS1=] version tried to sound a bit more European as just about everyone in the PSP version sounded too American.) It depends on what you felt about the voice work in the PS1 [=PS1=] version or if you are a fan of Californian Anime English Dub [=VAs=] such as YuriLowenthal, WendeeLee and MichelleRuff.

** The original PS1 version of the game has a weird glitch involving a room with Frozen Shades: if you use the wolf form to quickly dash through the room until you hit an underwater wall, avoid killing the first and last Frozen Shade, attack right when you hit the wall and when jump out of the water onto the Ferryman's boat while backdashing back to the Frozen Shade with your shield out, turn into a wolf in mid-air over it and fall on it, the game goes into slow motion until you change screens and all items in the area will respawn infinitely, allowing you to max out your HP and hearts by collecting the respective Max Ups positioned next to each other in another part of the area, along with being able to get additional copies of any other items found in the area. If it sounds too obscure and random to believe, see [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dmxreEueX0 this.]]

to:

** The original PS1 [=PS1=] version of the game has a weird glitch involving a room with Frozen Shades: if you use the wolf form to quickly dash through the room until you hit an underwater wall, avoid killing the first and last Frozen Shade, attack right when you hit the wall and when jump out of the water onto the Ferryman's boat while backdashing back to the Frozen Shade with your shield out, turn into a wolf in mid-air over it and fall on it, the game goes into slow motion until you change screens and all items in the area will respawn infinitely, allowing you to max out your HP and hearts by collecting the respective Max Ups positioned next to each other in another part of the area, along with being able to get additional copies of any other items found in the area. If it sounds too obscure and random to believe, see [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dmxreEueX0 this.]]

* {{Woolseyism}}: The skeleton enemy chasing its head was unimaginatively named "Soccer Boy" in the original translation. The localization changed its name to "[[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} Yorick]]", going from a bland joke to a rather clever Shakespeare reference.** The Crissaegrim was actually known as the Valmanway in the Japanese version, which stuck to later games in both Japanese and English that had the sword appear again at some point. Ditto for its weaker counterpart, the Vorpal Blade (which was known as the Sonic Blade in the Japanese version).

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* {{Woolseyism}}: The Out of many of the changed enemy names from Japanese-to-English, the skeleton enemy chasing its head was unimaginatively named "Soccer Boy" in the original translation. The localization changed its name to "[[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} Yorick]]", going from a bland joke to a rather clever Shakespeare reference.** The Crissaegrim was actually known as Nearly all the Valmanway in the Japanese version, which stuck to later games famous swords had different names in both the Japanese and English that had versions; the sword appear again at some point. Ditto for its weaker counterpart, English names were all references to [[Creator/JRRTolkien Tolkien]] lore (Icebrand, Sword of Hador, Dark Blade, Crissaegrim and so forth), while in later games the Vorpal Blade (which was known as the Sonic Blade in the original Japanese version).names stuck for the localizations.

** Bone Muskets AKA Skeleton Gunmen. Those little bastards are able to take off around 30 HP a shot, require you to duck and wait, as well as possibly being in a room full of other enemies to hinder you. It doesn't help in that some of them are encountered early-to-mid game and while trying to input spells to deal with them, they can just snipe your ass (despite them having very low HP).

** The Crissaegrim was actually known as the Valmanway in the Japanese version, which stuck to later games in both Japanese and English that had the sword appear again at some point. Ditto for its weaker counterpart, the Vorpal Blade (which was known as the Sonic Blade in the Japanese version).

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